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Brazil to boost research investment
Brazil¡¯s science and technology minister, Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg, has announced government plans to increase scientific research investment from 1.4 per cent of gross domestic product to 2 per cent in 2005. Mr Sardenberg, former professor of international relations at the University of Brasilia, has also allocated $537 million (?378 million) a year to research on telecommunications, water and mining resources, electrical energy, transport and other areas.

Italian scientists appeal for more funds
Italian scientists have appealed to the government of Silvio Berlusconi for "substantial¡± increases in research funding. An open letter, signed by some of Italy's most illustrious scientists including Nobel Prize-winning biologist Rita Levi Montalcini, calls for the assignment of funds purely on merit. The letter points out that Italy is the only European Union nation in which research spending did not rise between 1990 and 2000.